If Will Campbell had just taken to a trio of defensive line coaches breathing down his neck for eight months the top line of that depth chart would be almost great: two seniors, two juniors, three returning starters, a couple all-conference types, and one moon-sized five-star recruit emerging into the starting lineup. The depth… eh… not so much, but as far as lines go that's a pretty good start en route to defensive competency.

Campbell didn't. Halfway through camp Ryan Van Bergen got flipped into the interior of the line and the coaches started talking about Nate Brink, then put near 300-pound Will Heininger, who sat out last year with an ACL tear, on top of the depth chart. Both are walk-ons. Yipes.

Defensive Tackle

Rating: 4.5

We'll start with the good. Last year, freshman Jibreel Black showed up and got an eyeful of what college defensive linemen were like when he laid eyes on Mike Martin. He came away from the experience with his eyes opened and his grammar damaged:

"When I see some plays that Mike (Martin) makes in practice, I be like dang. His explosiveness, his technique that he uses. You can tell the work that he put in with it.”

In the right situation (three-technique instead of the nose) with the right amount of healthy ankles (two instead of zero), Martin could make All-America selectors be like dang.

Unfortunately, it seems like Martin is never going to get to move to that three-tech spot it seems he was made for. It's not that he's a bad nose tackle. Martin is big and strong and can take on double teams just fine. But he's also amazingly quick for a 300-pound squat-beast, so much so that the first thing Greg Mattison thought when he saw him was "we should use him like Shawn Crable." In the spring game passing downs Martin was in on often featured him in a two-point stance, hopping around like a linebacker. This is not your typical nose tackle.

If permitted to go one-on-one with guards used to holding off slugs and the results could be spectacular, like Jonathan Babineaux 28-TFL spectacular. But with no one else on the roster who won't get annihilated at the nose, Martin will have to tough out the double teams.

If you flip through the videos at right you'll see an awful lot of Martin crushing people until the Michigan State game, and then hardly anything. That's because a Spartan lineman chop-blocked Martin at the end of a game that was well in hand. Martin limped off and was diagnosed with the dreaded high ankle sprain. From then on he was not himself.

Sometimes this manifested by not being on the field at all. Martin missed most of the Iowa and Penn State games, big chunks of Illinois, and didn't play at all against Purdue. He started to get his mojo back afterwards but only gradually. You can see the effect in his UFR chart:

Opponent

++

--

TOT

Notes

UConn

8

3

5

Late minuses for getting too pass-rush-y. Demands doubles. Good start.

Notre Dame

12

0.5

11.5

Beast mode. Best game of career.

UMass

25

-

25

I just write the numbers down!

BGSU

7

1

6

Quick passing offenses reduce DL impact; still did well when called upon.

Indiana

11.5

3

8.5

Actually got beat out by someone, also round this down to +7 or so.

MSU

8

1

7

A good performance, but coming down from his ridiculous nonconference level.

Iowa

0.5

1

-0.5

Clearly hurt.

Penn State

-

1

-1

I'm going to throw myself off a bridge.

Illinois

8

1

7

Was more back than it looked live, but still out a lot more than usual.

Purdue

-

-

-

DNP

Wisconsin

8.5

2

6.5

One old-style "I destroy this play" plus a few more scattered good bits and some half points.

Martin was a nonfactor the next two weeks and only moderately effective against Illinois (remember that the wacky nature of that game meant more plays for DL to rack up points). To preserve my sanity I didn't UFR the dismal final two games of Rodriguez's career. Martin had two tackles and four assists against OSU and one measly assist in the bowl game; none of those were behind the LOS.

Healthy again and less abandoned in the middle of the defense, Martin's numbers should soar. Before the sprain Martin was on pace for 11 TFLs and 4 sacks; after it he got just a half TFL the rest of the year. While the front of the schedule is a bit easier, Martin had 8.5 TFLs and 51 tackles a year ago. Reasonable progression should have gotten him to 11. Add in further progression plus three DL coaches plus a bit more help on the line plus a free-roaming QB attack role and 15 to 18 TFLs plus a little more QB terror should be within reach. He should be All Big Ten. He might be better.

Ryan Van Bergen is your new starting three-tech. Great at nothing but consistent and durable, Van Bergen is a lot better than he gets credit for. As a put upon 3-3-5 DE last year he had 5 sacks and 9.5 TFLs despite getting very little help from the structure of the defense. He was often left by himself against two defenders, especially when it came to the passing game. GERG loved him some three-man rush.

/shakes fist

Van Bergen graded out almost as well as Martin over the course of the season thanks to his steady acquisition of points and half points for standing his ground against doubles or pushing offensive linemen into places they don't want to be. The UFR chart is really impressive:

Opponent

++

--

TOT

Notes

UConn

3

-

3

Not exactly BG, but I don't think he has to be if it's a stack.

Notre Dame

4.5

3

1.5

Unproductive until late; irresponsible on midline zone read.

UMass

5

1.5

3.5

Lots of half points for doing decently on run plays.

BGSU

5.5

2

3.5

Decent impact in little opportunity.

Indiana

12

-

12

Excellent against the run, got some pass rush, mentally round this down to a +8.

MSU

9.5

1

8.5

One impact sack, some additional pressure, solid against the run. Good player.

Iowa

5.5

1

4.5

Best performance on the day but that's just average.

Penn State

10

3

7

The solitary player to have a good day.

Illinois

10.5

3.5

7

Developing into a fine player. Now consistently putting up points.

Purdue

7

3

4

May have been unfairly blamed for the big Henry keeper.

Wisconsin

3

6

-3

Did not make many plays; seemed to give up big cutback lanes easily. Maybe an RPS thing.

Van Bergen got better as the season went along and kept playing well in the face of total annihilation. He produced, and then Martin went out and he kept producing. A lot of the things he did were not explosive look-at-me plays, but the meat-and-potatoes grunt work required to keep your linebackers clean. This is emblematic:

That's not even an assist but by slanting past his blocker and then holding his ground he occupies two blockers and closes the hole so far that the RB runs into one of the guys trying to block him.

That is Van Bergen lined up as a three-tech between Craig Roh and Mike Martin smoking MSU RT J'Michael Deane. Deane was apparently not much of a pass protector, but he's representative of the sort of guys RVB will be going up against this year—guards who are crushing run blockers but maybe not so good at pass pro.

His rushing isn't on Brandon Graham's level—last year's prediction he would "brush up against double digit sacks" fell three or four short. As the third-most-threatening guy on the line he's pretty good. If Michigan can get him single blocked by rushing more than three guys he might get there this year. He had five sacks from the three-tech spot as a sophomore; two years of experience and the luxury of being flanked by Martin and Roh will give him opportunities to slant past one-on-one blocking.

What's more, Van Bergen was an ironman last year. On a defense saddled with mediocre or worse backups at every spot, Van Bergen saw more snaps than any DL, often going entire games without being substituted. This year's line has no depth, either. That trait is going to be useful.

The move to three-tech won't be an issue. He played it two years ago and when Michigan went to a four man front last year they stuck him back inside. He's now 290, a three year starter, and a senior. He's a good bet to crack double-digit TFLs and get some All Big Ten mention.

Come On Backups

yes, I wrote this section when I thought he was going to start

Well… there's Will Campbell. The all-everything recruit (except to ESPN, where he was their #22 OT) has languished on the bench, bounced to OL, and then gotten bounced from the starting lineup by a walk-on.

ESPN's skepticism about Campbell's tendency to stand straight up turned out to be right. When placed on the field as a freshman he struggled badly. Canonical example recycled from last year:

Description recycled from last year:

I'm not at the point where I can tell you the ten different things Campbell did to get blown four yards downfield, but I can blather on about pad level: man, pad level. Am I right?

You'll note that Campbell was playing a three-tech and got smoked one on one. The hype about how Campbell is an obvious three-tech and having him at the nose was another symptom of GERG's madness still has to combat Campbell's pad level, man.

At least his weight is back on the downswing. Last year he was listed at 333, significantly up from his freshman weight. Rodriguez was openly displeased with his conditioning last year, and he never saw the field outside of the goal line package. That's not good; it's even worse when Greg Banks and Renaldo Sagesse are the guys getting time instead of you. He's down eleven pounds this year and it's safe to say that's for the best. There is no good weight above 320.

Teammates and coaches have started talking Campbell up. While anyone who remembers the three weeks that Ron English spent talking up Johnny Sears knows that's not necessarily an assurance the player in question will be good, or even not-awful, at least this time around the conditioning grumblings are being directed elsewhere. Nose tackles do tend to take some time, as last year's West Texas Blue diary on Campbell's DT classmates demonstrated. Most redshirted as freshmen; few of the ones who didn't had any impact. (DeQuinta Jones was instantly productive for Arkansas, of course. That's just what happened under Rodriguez.)

He's further behind the curve now but even fellow uber recruits like LSU's Chris Davenport (one tackle), and Texas's Calvin Howell (two tackles) are struggling to find the field. They're not idling behind Greg Banks, sure, but Campbell's not dead yet.

He can be okay if protected. I spent large chunks of the spring game focused on him and he was mediocre:

All eyes were on Will Campbell and Will Campbell was all right. He got single blocked the whole day, alternating his time between pushing into the backfield to force cutbacks on unsuccessful runs, getting blocked out of rushing lanes, and (on passing downs) sitting at the LOS being the guy who looks for screens and scrambles. Unsurprisingly, reports that Campbell was "unblockable" as a three-tech turned out to be fiction—Campbell didn't beat a block all day. His contributions were limited to getting a moderate amount of penetration when single blocked on running plays. It was far from dominant; it could have been worse. I'm still pretty worried about what happens on stretch plays.

A moderate amount of penetration is worlds better than that clip above. He'll feature in the goal line package and against teams that want to run.

Past Campbell the only player anyone's seen on the field is redshirt sophomore Quinton Washington, who Rodriguez flipped from guard during the bye week last year. Washington got in on a few goal line plays, proceeding to drive his guy back and fall over.

That's fine on a goal line play. Taking that limited skillset and expanding it to the point where he can play defensive tackle on the other 98 yards is going to be trickier.

With Terry Talbott's medical redshirt there are just two other options, both redshirt freshmen who have survived the harrowing that's befallen much of Rodriguez's recruiting classes. Richard Ash is a nose tackle sort from Pahokee who briefly featured offers from USC and Florida before abruptly losing those. Over the course of a year he went from 260 to 320, which scared a lot of people off. Last year his corpulence was notable even amongst the defensive tackles. He's back down to about 300 now and will have to see some time spelling Martin. The sum total of Ash knowledge other than his weight loss is still in his recruiting profile.

The other option is Kenny Wilkins, who was initially supposed to be a weakside DE but showed up at 270 and is now 280. He's now listed as a DT and presumably will back up the three-tech spot. Wilkins was memorably pwned by walkons in the spring game on Mike Cox's long touchdown and has been called out by the coaches as a guy who needs to get his act together; if he plays this year he probably won't play well.

Strongside Defensive End

Rating: 1

This was Van Bergen until Campbell's failure to emerge sucked him back into the interior. Now you get your choice of walk-on. First on the depth chart is senior Will Heininger, who missed last year with an ACL tear and used that opportunity to expand alarmingly fast. After adding six pounds two years ago he threw on 28 over this offseason to end up at 295.

My assumption was that kind of weight gain from an injured guy who'd been in the program for years was a Posada-like sign, but after being all but ignored during fall camp he popped up on the two-deep as a starter and Hoke said that was a real thing. He must have spent every waking hour in the weight room.

"Experience" was why he got the nod; that experience consists of backing Brandon Graham up. In is time on the field he rarely did anything wrong; he rarely did anything right, either. He was a non-factor. As a guy spotting Graham from time to time that's cool, but as a starter or a guy rotating with another equally obscure walk-on that's a recipe for zero production out of a spot that should see its fair share of plays. If this spot averages out as a zero next year that's probably good—and that's not good.

One mitigating factor here: Michigan showed a three-man line in their two-minute defense. That package removes the walk-ons in favor of a zone-blitzing 3-4. These guys aren't playing on passing downs and may not see a lot of time against spread outfits. All these guys have to do is not get pounded on the ground. Pass rush is a bonus.

Backups

Nate Brink; where Nate Brink came from

More walkons! Sexy. With Van Bergen held out, Nate Brink was the starter at SDE in the spring game. Everybody assumed that didn't mean anything and focused on Campbell, so no one can tell you word one about how he did.

He faded back into Bolivian until the Van Bergen move, whereupon press conferences started talking about him and insiders started dropping what knowledge they had. The insiders said their usual bits about Brink being a diamond in the rough—one report claimed Mattison said he'd be in the two deep of any college team he'd coached. The press conferences were similarly predictable. This bit from Mattison is the most encouraging:

He's played like a Michigan football player. I hate to talk about a young man because I think when I do that they go right down in the tubes but this guy has come out every day as tough as he can. He listens to Coach Montgomery on every word. When he tells him to step a certain way, he tries, and he's really, really physical.

I think he was probably 250 in the spring and we told him to get to 265 and when he was reporting, I yelled, 'What do you weigh?' He said, '265' and I told him to drink some water and sure enough he started drinking water. Now I think he's 267 or 268.

In the spring, his toughness showed up and he was only 250 at that time. But his want-to and toughness stuck out like crazy. And that's what we want - 11 guys that play with that kind of attitude.

He's a guy that if he keeps doing what he's doing, Michigan people are going to be very happy with him.

I know this will end in tears but that's actually coachspeak that seems meaningful.

Brink will play. After mentioning Heininger's experience he said Brink has "practiced very well, played well, been productive" and promised to rotate six guys on the line. Six is a weird number because it means one of Black, Campbell, or Brink is on the fringe. Given the lineups Campbell seems the most likely even though that seems unlikely.

There's obviously no depth when the first two guys are walkons. In the event injuries hit them, Michigan will grit its teeth and slide Van Bergen back outside. True freshmen Chris Rock (Not That Chris Rock) and Keith Heitzman should be headed for redshirts (Heitzman actually might be headed for TE). If they don't it's a Ray Vinopal situation.

Weakside Defensive End

Rating: a speculative 4.

what do you mean by "I don't want to play corner" again?

The only thing Michigan fans will miss about the deathbacker position is the name, and even then the group of people who know its true nomenclature is even smaller than the already-pretty-small group who know Craig Roh was a "spinner" and vastly smaller than the masses who know Roh is "that defensive end Michigan insists on pretending is a linebacker."

Craig Roh is not a linebacker. He has never been a linebacker, and this year he cranked himself up to 270 pounds to evaporate the last vestiges of confusion. Look at my giant skull crushing muscles, he says. Just try to put this in a two point stance.

And the thing is, last year Roh wasn't that exploitable as a defensive end. He was certainly no more so than the other non-Van Bergen options, and when Michigan put his hand in the dirt against Notre Dame they got dividends from it:

Hit up those videos on the side to confirm. For a guy who was supposedly a liability he made his share of plays against the run in trying circumstances. Notable is that many of those were plays on the backside where he got under his blocker in a flash and sped down the line. On the weakside in the 4-3 under this is what he's going to be doing a lot.

Roh was so badly misserved by the previous defensive staff that he had to tell them what the hell he should be doing on defense. He requested a move back to the DL and got it, whereupon he was decent despite all this 3-3-5 business not suiting him at all. Talking about what happened to Roh last year makes me stabby. I called him the "Denard of the defense" because he was a uber-touted recruit forced on the field way too early by necessity; Denard became Denard and Roh dropped into short zones. Other than everything else, that was the clearest evidence GERG was sacrificing our defense to Xenu.

This year, though… this year Craig Roh is 270 pounds and will be playing the spot literally every scouting evaluation ever issued about him has begged—demanded—plead for him. This could yield one of those breakout year things. Here's what he did in the games Michigan played him mostly as a lineman:

Opponent

++

--

TOT

Notes

Notre Dame

11

-

11

By far best game of his career.

MSU

6

1.5

4.5

Wasn't a liability in the run game against a pounding team.

Iowa

5

1

4

Okay, but not making a big impact.

Illinois

10.5

8

2.5

Eventful; some minuses may be someone else's fault.

Purdue

7

2.5

4.5

Good day.

Wisconsin

3.5

2

1.5

Basically one nice play and then not much.

He was much less a part of the tire fire when he had his hand in the dirt, and that was frequently as a 245-pound DE on a three man line. He is now 270 and going one-on-one with weakside tackles. He should improve from average-ish (remember that UFR slants towards the DL) to good.

At least good. We've yet to see the much of the pass-rushing skill that made Roh a top 50 recruit. He's displayed hints of the ability to zip past tackles before they know what hits them when suffered to rush the passer—there's a chance that when he puts hand to ground and is told to let it rip that he goes bonkers. Roh is the biggest X factor on the team. He could end up with anywhere from a half-dozen to twelve sacks.

Backups

There is one. Hooray. The aforementioned Jibreel Black saw time spotting Roh last year; he showed some pass rush flair. His run defense was abject. He prominently featured on a Michigan State touchdown drive where cutback lanes were always open because Black wasn't flowing down the line. He was targeted for dismantling every time he hit the field, and more often than not opponents got exactly what they wanted. Except Penn State, weirdly.

True freshman and all that, though. Black should be significantly better this year. Like Roh he'll benefit from the extra protection afforded the WDE in the 4-3 under and the triple threat DL coaches in the Hoke era. There is a significant downer, though. Black actually lost weight over the offseason, going from 265 to 260. This is one weight gain/loss that is not always good. After the spring Black was a guy who needed to change his body:

"Jibreel is a guy that, as his body composition changes a little bit, he's gonna be a good football player. I think him and Craig at the rush have had pretty good springs."

Though I can't find the quote I'm thinking of, the coaches seemed irritated when he came into camp five pounds lighter than he was as a freshman. Early in camp, Mattison responded to a question about Black by highlighting his inconsistency:

“Jibreel has a lot of talent, but right now, Jibreel is a little inconsistent. … That’s not a knock on him, but he’s just like a lot of talented young guys. I’m not ready to say this guy is the next Terrell Suggs (of the Baltimore Ravens)."

They have to play him; he might need another year to get his head right and muscles all powerful and stuff. Brandon Graham, who everyone has compared him to, took a couple years to get his head and body right, too.

Clark @ Glenville; the only extant photo of Paskorz on the field

But wait, there's more! On scholarship, even! True freshman Frank Clark defied his middling recruiting rankings and status as a WR/TE/LB/DE tweener to feature on the depth chart at WDE. He's supposed to be fast—very fast. An insider I've corresponded with noted that players say "he can catch Denard." He "just has a lot of athleticism" according to Van Bergen.

Clark's quick rise caught Mattison's eye when he was asked about freshman in general, not Clark specifically:

I think Frank Clark has a lot of ability. You can see a different speed at which he goes.

In his recruiting profile I said he had a long road ahead of him to productivity. Clark drove fast.

Redshirt freshman Jordan Paskorz may as well have been in the witness protection program since he enrolled. Not a peep has been heard about him since he arrived, and I have no recollection of the guy even playing in the spring game. But he is totally a defensive player on the roster who is not a true freshman. So we've got that going for us.

Paskorz was a generic three star coming out of high school; his recruiting profile is where the infos are. I wasn't that enthused about him a year ago but just by remaining on the roster he's ahead of a lot of his classmates. With Clark impressing and a serious need at TE he's another candidate to switch.

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I was perplexed by that quote as well. Only thing I can think of is that they internally refer only to the interior players (SDE, NT, 3-tech) as d-linemen. Small evidence of this is I think Mattison called Roh's position "rush linebacker" or some such at one point.

The guy above is right, he refeerred to it as some sort of linebacker at one point because I remember thinking, "What the hell...Roh at LB again???". Then someone on that thread explained what he meant. He definitely called it a LB though, not rush end.

It's the left guard #67, BTW. The complete brazeness of it is really kind of amazing. The ball is snapped and the guy just dives straight at Martin's lower right leg while he locked up with the center. Completely intentional and completely dirty.

all of these previews are just enforcing the idea that greg robinson is an idiot

...or rich rodriguez was an for forcing everyone to run a 3-3-5 and maintaining "the worst secondary coach in the country". presumably its some combination of both.

it makes my head hurt thinking about how kenny demens sat on the bench, craig roh was a linebacker, and will campbell burned a much needed redshirt so richrod could show us that he really needed a redshirt. agh!

I had forgotten that Paskorz played some TE in high school..... why not? From his H.S. coach:

“I’m sure all the computer breakdowns would say that we were so right-handed because he played as our tight end to the right side,” Hampton coach Jacque DeMatteo said. “And he just mauled people. It was fun to watch. It was really nice to be able to coach something like that.”

Maybe with some facial surgery and a new number we can get him out of the WPP.

Very well done article. My only disagreement would be rating the SDE position as a 1. I think that might be a little harsh but I can see where you're coming from. I am really excited to see this defense in action. I think they will be better than most people think.

"They will meet a dastardly fate here for that! There isn't a Michigan Man who wouldn't like go out and scalp those Buckeyes right now."

i agree with this. I'm not saying it should be a 5 (or even a 3, maybe) but not a 1. A 1 should be reserved for a more complete disaster, like a true frosh starting who we didn't want starting, or an injury obliterated line-up, kind of like CB last year. Sure, Heininger and Brink are walk-ons, but they're walk-ons who have reportedly been hanging with scholarship guys, not plugged in because the 2 or 3 guys ahead of him are injured. I think this is more similar to Kovacs starting than Sheridan starting.

Wilkins, Rock and Heitzman are all SDEs or could play it, and no one has mentioned them at all. They're young, but the fact that our two walk-ons are unequivocally better than 3 scholarship guys says these guys aren't typical walk-ons. If they were complete disasters, we sould start RVB there and start BWC or QW or Ash at DT but we're not. Or we'd have Roh and Black start at the DE spots.

Basically, these walk-ons aren't slotted where they are because they're our last options, it's because they're our best options. That in and of itself is far from ideal, but it's not disaster. If Heininger was a 5th year senior with 3-stars (5 years ago) instead of a 5th year senior walk-on, people would be singing a different tune.

Until there's evidence to suggest otherwise, I'm interpreting Heininger's starting assignment as an unmitigated disaster. Having RVB out at SDE would be such an weapon for our defense. I can't believe Campbell is so bad that we have to take away one of our only defensive weapons to cover him up.

"There was a time I could have been mistaken for Burt Reynolds. I had a moustache and so did he. But he was the number one star in the world, so there wasn't really much confusion."

The University's pdf depth chart indicates Will Campbell is the backup 1 Tech DT. And Richard Ash isn't listed at all. Quniton Washington is the backup at 3 Tech DT. My guess is that somehow Mattison wants to have as much balance as he can get in the 5 Tech thru 1 Tech line while having a complete double on rotation. And considering that Will Campbell has suffered the most from not focusing on his technique, they are making really sure that he gets good at one thing, being the 1-tech DT.

I'm going to be watching the SAM LB play along with this journeyman pair of SDE/5 Techs. I think we got so used to Graham and Woodley, that now that we may have fair to middlin' 5 techs we are too quickly thinking DOOM. Watching the video of Martin, I'm thinking that he and Roh are going to be really tearing things up when there is no TE helping out the OL. And with RVB being in there, I think we have 3 out of 4 DL very strong. As long as SDE let's the SAM do what they need to do on the run, I see this as a clear upgrade from last year overall.

The real test to me is whether this team can get better as the season progresses?

Are the coaches just as consistent as they proclaim they want the players to be?